Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Lot of you all performing self-lobotomies out there, and it really shows.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@SteveFaulkner/116091145441116888

I used to have a decent sideline as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for technical writing. All that work disappeared because LLMs took over and I refuse to use fabrication tools, esp. not for work where accuracy matters

So, now, when I see the people running tech writing teams complain that all their SMEs use LLMs to plagiarise and fabricate, I’m not particularly sympathetic.

This is specifically a mess you were warned about but decided to make and sit in anyway. FAFO.

#Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/18/epstein-files-crimes-against-humanity-un-experts "‘grave’ nature regarding scale of atrocities against women and girls" I'm sure #trump will agree...

Elon #Musk's #Grok faces another EU investigation over nonconsensual AI images - https://mashable.com/article/elon-musk-x-grok-eu-investigation-ireland-ai-generated-nonsconsensual-images "Grok's AI image generation feature reportedly created tens of thousands of sexual images of children." reportedly??? #csam

False information spread during the campaign for the Feb. 8 general election in Japan was perceived as true by about 80% of voters who encountered it, according to a university survey. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/18/japan/voters-survey-false-info/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #fakenews #surveys #toyouniversity #2026lowerhouseelection #socialmedia #television

@dangoodin cool cool just remember that contrary to what Ars says, their articles aren't written by people

New article on too many satellites and ways that we SHOULD be allocating orbits (by Gregory Radisic with me as second author) https://theconversation.com/too-many-satellites-earths-orbit-is-on-track-for-a-catastrophe-but-we-can-stop-it-275430

Been up for about 30 minutes and I already got a media inquiry. Nice.

Marisa Kabas is doing some of the best reporting on the Trump regime's abuses of law and people. In this case, she explains the chicanery involved in a massive program to build new concentration camps -- in warehouses. (Big Journalism hasn't noticed, of course.)

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/ice-concentration-camps-wexmac-titus?utm_source=www.thehandbasket.co&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=for-ice-to-build-concentration-camps-quickly-they-re-leaning-on-this-dept-of-war-program

The Wisconsin Senate is voting on S.B. 130/A.B. 105, a problematic age verification bill that effectively bans VPN access to certain websites. If you live in Wisconsin, now is the time for you to contact your State Senator and urge them to vote down this bill. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/eff-wisconsin-legislature-vpn-bans-are-still-terrible-idea

Today in questions I am biting my tongue at:
"Is there a term for the point when trying to prod a LLM in the right direction where you realise it would have been quicker not to use it at all?"

Microsoft only gets more and more likeable, eh. https://www.972mag.com/ice-microsoft-azure-leaked-files/

For those who haven't seen it: web.archive.org/web/20051013072349/http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS_1.html It's old, but it's spot on, and it's a fun read. My verdict: Microsoft is the most completely unworthy global force imaginable.

@rfheller indeed - if the universities don't trust their tech educators... why should industry? Isn't that the whole point?

"Financing freedom: how we funded our co-op", from Ray of Wirksworth Co-op.

https://raythespirit.com/blog/2025/12/8/financing-freedom-how-we-funded-our-co-op

#HousingCoop #Coop #Housing #Wirksworth

There's tremendous value to being a strict LLM Abstentionist in the current political climate, whether or not there are any "valid use cases for LLMs" (there are—not nearly as many as most people think, but sure, more than zero) or the LLM was "created ethically" (to my knowledge no such model exists, but yeah, it's technically possible that someone has or will eventually build one).

Tech workers especially who refuse to interact with this technology are telling their coworkers and employers that ethics and morality are more important to some people than convenience and profit. This is a bold stance to take during good times—and downright foolhardy in the current job market—but the more people who draw the line here, the better the outcomes will be for literally everybody on the whole planet (except, perhaps, for some billionaire investors).

Microsoft is intrinsic to machinery of fascism in the US, and profiting from it. From minds to tools, storage to data analysis and automation, leaked files show just how deep they are in the engine room of ICE.

https://www.972mag.com/ice-microsoft-azure-leaked-files/

#BigTech

#Australia’s Social Media Ban Is Isolating Kids With Disabilities—Just Like Critics Warned - https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/17/australias-social-media-ban-is-isolating-kids-with-disabilities-just-like-critics-warned/

Is there a website that promotes tech jobs at companies that don't use AI?

I'm not looking for work right now. However, I know a few people who are, and they don't want to work for someone who forces them to use GenAI, either for code, for infrastructure management, or for writing documentation.

For them, the prospect of working in tech in 2026 is just bleak.

#AskFedi

@noboilerplate@namtao.com It's pretty easy to move to something better like Codeberg. Git is a free and distributed version management system after all. All you have to do is "git push" to a new repo and your entire history is there.

PSA: If you block the `claude` user on GitHub, you'll get a warning every time you view a repo with that user in its commit history.

Now, the moment you look at a repo, you can immediately adjust your expectations.

You may do so here: https://github.com/settings/blocked_users